Digital card games, no matter how player-friendly they try to be to appeal to broader audiences, are still a niche thing, and most players will choose to stick with the one they already know. But if you had the option to familiarise yourself with one of the best representatives of the genre, which one should you choose for 2026?
Here are some of the best card games that are going to be worth your time and investment, no matter what.
Hearthstone
- Released: 2014
- Genre: Multiplayer online collectible card game / Autobattler / Roguelike deck-building card game
- Multiplayer: Yes
- Mobile version: Yes
- Best for: Competitive players
Hearthstone is an online multiplayer collectible card game with a very simple premise, but incredible depth. It has been around for over 12 years now, and it’s still going strong, so much so that it’s still safe to call it the number 1 digital card game in the world. There are many good reasons for it: the overall mechanics are engaging, the visuals are captivating, the soundtrack is brilliant, and it’s just super funny in both card interactions and lore descriptions. If you are a World of Warcraft fan, you can easily double the amount of joy you’ll get from these.
Hearthstone is also incredibly varied, and its classic game mode might not even be the most popular one at the moment. If you want a card duel with a random opponent of the same skill level, then you can have it, sure. But there is also an autobattler mode, solo adventures, puzzle games, arena deck-building experiences, and more. You can easily get tired of Hearthstone only to find yourself switching to a different type of Hearthstone, never leaving the client at all.
The best part is that it is a CCG, which means regular expansions with hundreds of new cards, meta rotations, and, occasionally, some new game modes. That said, we haven’t seen a PvE-type expansion in years, and it feels like the devs aren’t particularly interested in these — probably because they aren’t getting as well-monetized as just printing new expansion cards.
That’s right, Hearthstone is technically free, but in reality, you might end up spending way, way more money on it than on any other game on this list. The prices bite hard, and even getting just a few packs can cost you an entire different game worth hundreds of hours of exploration. If you are hooked and really want to compete and get high rankings, then you will probably find yourself dedicating a portion of your income to it, because some of the cards are mandatory for success.
Hearthstone has a mobile version, but it comes with several disadvantages. First, it requires a lot of space, and frequent updates mean that you’ll sometimes have to wait to get into the game. Secondly, the mobile version of the game’s UI is just not as good as the desktop version, and you’ll find yourself struggling to see every bit of information you need, and some decks are particularly painful to play on touchscreens.
Finally, Hearthstone’s autobattler mode, Battlegrounds, requires a lot of processing power to work correctly, and also demands a high action-per-minute ratio from players, and the mobile app isn’t really capable of satisfying both of these requirements.
Slay the Spire 2
- Released: 2026
- Genre: Roguelike deck-building card game
- Multiplayer: Yes
- Mobile version: No
- Best for: Roguelike fans
The most recent addition to the digital card game world, Slay the Spire 2, has set a record for most concurrent players for its genre on Steam, and that was very much expected, to be honest. The original Slay the Spire was a great success and a well-recognized classic, and the sequel simply does everything it did, but adds a lot more new content, including two new classes, dozens of events, relics, enemies, and more.
If you’ve never played the original game, know that Slay the Spire 2 is a roguelike deckbuilder that provides you with a character, a starter deck, and a map with various paths leading to the final goal. Each marker on the map leads to a certain encounter, or a rest point, or a merchant willing to sell you something useful. Each run, successful or not, opens up some new tools, areas, cards, and other rewards to make the gameplay even more varied.
You can easily spend several hundred hours in this game and not get bored with it, because there are so many things to try out. Shall you burn your own cards to make a consistent deck with Ironclad, or should you get a few dozen soul cards to shuffle through as a Necrobinder? Poison your enemies, turtle up and reflect their attacks, or simply hit them hard so that they perish before they even get a shot? You’ll do it all, and a lot more.
As a single-player game, Slay the Spire 2 has a great advantage in that you can pause it or leave it at any point and return whenever it is convenient, with all progress saved. But there’s also multiplayer, and it’s solid, even though the current early access version of the game requires a bit of fine-tuning in this section.
If you are a mobile player, there are some ways to make Slay the Spire 2 work on Android right now, but the official version is yet to come. Considering the roaring success of the original game’s app, there’s no doubt that it’s coming, though, and there doesn’t seem to be any obstacles that would make the sequel’s version of the app subpar in any way.
Balatro
- Released: 2024
- Genre: Roguelike deck-building card game
- Multiplayer: No
- Mobile version: Yes
- Best for: Classic card games enthusiasts
If you have never ever played any card games outside of classic ones like poker, here’s an amazing entry point into the niche. An award-winning roguelike, Balatro is literally a poker+ deck-building game, and everyone agrees that seeing your score go up is immensely satisfying to the point where we have to warn you not to play it on your work break — you won’t be able to come back from it before you finish a run or two.
If you check reviews, you’d find that most of them describe the game’s innovative aspects and the great feeling of infinite progression it provides, but the most important aspect of Balatro is that it is already familiar to most players by default. It also looks and feels like playing an old-time CRT-screen poker machine, and that stylistic choice can either evoke nostalgia for those who have seen these machines in action or give younger generations a glimpse of them today.
Essentially, as long as you understand how poker works, Balatro is going to be incredibly intuitive, but the depth and variety are off the charts. If you learn more about the history and mechanics behind the playing cards, one of the first things you’ll discover is the mathematical genius behind them. As one of DashTickets’ articles reminds us, a base deck of 52 is large enough to accommodate millions of different hand combinations, and there is a reason why this version of a deck achieved global prominence instead of others like German or Spanish.
Now, add extra randomness through roguelike mechanics. Sometimes, you’ll end up getting multiple flushes in a row; other times, you’ll literally win by using a single card. It’s hard to evaluate just how balanced Balatro really is math-wise, but it doesn’t really matter, because you’ll end up having too much fun with your little combos to care about such technicalities.
There is currently no way to play Balatro in multiplayer, as the game is simply not designed with that in mind. Not every card game needs competition or communication to be fun, and solitaires are a great, long-lasting example of that. Still, there’s something incredibly funny in how Balatro manages to turn poker into a single-player game that is arguably even more fun than the original.
The mobile version of Balatro is just as fun as the original, with no real UI issues — the original game requires very few inputs and uses large buttons by default, so it translates very well. It also doesn’t require a lot of space to run.
